Midwest Love for Baby-Dub

This past Sunday, on Halloween, about 13 wonderful ladies who I've had the pleasure of getting to know (and a few missing) came together to throw a shower for our little guy. In just over a month and a half, he'll be with us to stay! It's so incredibly surreal that pregnancy goes by so quickly! Surely as I am awake during the middle of the night, I don't think it's a slow process... but I digress.

Here are some photos my friend Liz took during the shower because I sadly took none! I'm so terrible at taking photos during events! This photo is of a friend, Kathy, and myself just after the shower ended.

 From the above photo and here, you can see Alli's gorgeous flower selection. I'm a huge gerbera daisy fan and if I had a photo from our wedding to post here, I'd do that. I just love them. They're simple, clean, and fresh-- and no one is allergic to the scent. :) I can't forget to mention the thought put into the other centerpieces, too! Those cute monkeys are to match the lovely quilt and bumpers my mom made for Baby W's crib. I saved this little guy because I felt he best represented our blondness-- my husband and myself. I can almost guarantee our child will be a toe-head if not a redhead. We'll see!

 From left to right: Erica, Carolyn, Liz, Kim, Kristi, Kathy

 From left to right: me and my enormous arm (seriously, I know you noticed it, too. Ick), Jessie, Misha, Amanda, and Alli.

We have no photos of Jenny for some reason... but she was there and we're so happy she was able to leave her little lady, Abigail, to be with us for a couple hours.

Gift time! We don't have a big photo of the spread, but there were so many wonderful and thoughtful surprises from the girls. Though they were all wonderful, a few really thoughtful pieces stand out in my mind: a Christmas ornament of baby boy shoes for Baby W's first Christmas & special books picked out by Joel-- our favorite 2-year-old and son to Jim & Kristi. We're so thankful for all the gifts, but mostly for the time and effort people put forth to show us how much they care. As I told the ladies at the shower, one of our only concerns with choosing to become pregnant when we first moved to the Midwest was that we wouldn't have as much love and support knowing very few people. That's not true anymore at all! Sure, there are no family members local, but it's nice to support one another in friendship. We feel very loved. God's definitely taken care of us and answered some prayers.

 This photo is more to show off the awesome basket of goodies from Amanda & Alli! Those ladies were creative in their wrapping. :)

 Here's Kim and the food spread. She's also an elementary teacher and pregnant with her first--surprise gender, due in early 2011.

Kristi put together a fun game about candy related to pregnancy/childbirth. I was terrible at the game but enjoyed hearing all of the fun answers.

Liz's sister, Becky, and her son Luke came to join us in their Halloween costumes! It was very fun to have them there and Luke to help me with opening the gifts.

Later at home, I took another photo of those gorgeous flowers... they're still hanging out on our kitchen island looking as beautiful as ever. My flowers from last week (surprise from my awesome husband) are also just as lovely.

Final themed piece from the shower... the plates and napkin complete with monkeys!

What a wonderful day it was! Then, I went home to tons of trick-or-treaters all over the place and lots of candy-- of which we have way too many leftovers!